Melbourne apartment fire caused by air con

An air conditioner is to blame for a fire that forced hundreds of residents to evacuate a 20-storey Melbourne apartment building in the middle of the night.

The fire started on a second floor balcony but quickly spread to the exterior of all floors above, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade says.

About 400 people were evacuated from the burning Docklands building around 2.30am on Tuesday.

A MFB spokesman said there was some minor fire damage to each of the apartments but it was mostly from smoke and water.

"The problem was the fire spread up the external balconies and caused some damage to each of the floors above which operated the sprinkler system, so obviously there's some water damage that we've got to try and clean up as well," he said.

He said apart from some broken windows the building appeared structurally sound.

Investigators say an air conditioning unit is to blame for the fire, but the exact cause is still to be determined.

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"It's certainly looking like the air conditioner, but the question is whether something blew into it or was sucked into it and caused a fault, or whether it was an actual fault with the unit," the MFB spokesman said.

Residents were evacuated to the Southern Cross bus terminal and Etihad Stadium where paramedics treated some evacuees for minor injuries.

"A couple of people suffered scraped knees from slipping on the building's stairs coming down in the wet," senior paramedic Steve Moody said.